BRUNFELS, Otto

PANDECTAE scripturarum veteris novi TestamentiE

      Basel: (Barptolemaeus Westhemerus),, 1543.. 8vo, (48), 669, (3)pp. Profusely blind-tooled German pigskin, dated 1557 on front board, centermost & outer panels decorated with serpentine motif, fleurons around innermost panels, iron clasps, raised bands. Reddish stains to back board, contemp. inscript. at title-page, light marginal dampstains to last 3 signatures, small piece of lower clasp broken away. A very good copy, in a handsome contemporary binding. Armorial bookplate of Baron Radcliffe. . ! Early Basel edition, originally published at Strasbourg in 1527/28. One of the first Protestant biblical concordances, the Pandectae is organized by topic (De Deo, De Christo, De Peccato, De Spe, etc.) and concludes with biographical entries on biblical persons and wars. Before Otto Brunfels (c.1488-1534) rescued botany from the confines of medieval scholasticism, he in fact spent about twelve years in a Carthusian monastery in Strasbourg until he, aided by Ulrich von Hutten and the printer Johann Schott, fled both the monastery and Catholicism. He quickly became a Protestant preacher, but his Protestantism, affected by the mysticism of Bodenstein von Karlstadt, was too unlike that of the other reformers in Strasbourg and merely embroiled Brunfels in controversy. He was then, perhaps in consequence of his religious frustrations, drawn to the botanical work that has made him famous. Nevertheless, his theological efforts were of great importance, and the vitriolic nature of his correspondence with Erasmus is legendary. In addition to publishing this work, he wrote both several widely read volumes on the lives of men and women in the Bible and numerous theological tracts. Cf. Bietenholz I.206-7. VD16 ZV-2572. Not in NUC. Not in Adams.